Although I was expecting it I was deeply depressed when the train went past the depot and an immense switch lock made the point all too clear that I was no longer welcome. On the brighter side there seemed to be a bigger crowd of Silvertonians (if thats the phrase) greeting the train in various historical costumes & the band attacked John Phillip Sousa with their usual enthusiasm. And the weather was unseasonably mild...at least until the wind & clouds came up canyon.
I will be the first to admit that I am not a typical passenger...a dirt poor Durangatang foamer who just can't seem to get enough cinders down the back of his neck. And in my many many hours in the depot talking to Chris, Teena? (with her foamer dog) and Malcom I have noticed a number of irritated passengers who do not appreciate having to walk all the way to the depot and then having to walk ALL the way to the train. As much as I appreciated the modest museum it was lucky if a half dozen people actually looked at it and somedays none at all. And the "freight car display" received even less attention and without an engine I understand that almost anybody would dismiss it as nothing more than a rusty junk yard. So it certainly makes sense to just put all the ticketing on Greene Street and good business sense to bring into an affiliated business if only to admire the lobby and maybe plan for a future stay.
Yup...all seems like a good idea.
But I LIKED hanging out at the depot for its railroad people, stories & atmosphere not to mention listening to the many many stories about life in the scorpion bowl that is Silverton. Stuff you just don't hear, let alone feel standing in line for a funnel cake. More than any other place on the entire line the station was the most insistent wisper "the calandar may read 2017, and 2017 commercialism is carrying on with all the noise & class of Blair Street back in the day.... but this, my friends, this is what 1882 actually looked like, how it smelled, how it felt and even without the telegraph, how it sounded"

I think the seats are still there, or if not, the building itself to lean against as I eat my home made lunch. So it will still serve as shade and a windbreak. But its all different;
All very poetic....and still the switch lock blocks entry into the very heart of railroadin' as it was for so many, many decades.

Husker Hank
Durango CO